Survivors! Half my bees made it through winter and my ham-fisted beekeeping. (Not beating my chest, very grateful, elated!)

The Groot Hive even is a survivor!

My biggest cause of loss was I believe, wet bottom boards. I had a learning experience about late feeding of syrup, another contributor was rain on the front porch (hive visors fixed that). Bottom boards still nasty with dead and fungus. I use a hook to clean them out but you cant reach the back corners. I need to solve this or plan to swap out bottom boards in Nov/December to give them a clean start.

This season I'm looking to make splits with my survivors  and I hope to capitalize on a couple hundred acres of Vetch.

I am excited to see bucket loads of pollen (willow?) going in the front door, if the Maple bloom does well we will be off to a booming start.

I'm looking for a Linden tree (silver leaf) to plant in my front yard. :^) And starting up the box and frame assembly line....

And PS, the trick of slightly tipping your hives forward allows in-hive condensation better drainage and so helps to diminish the wet bottom boards.

I have the flavor of linden that is mature trees that came with my Hillsboro property. I believe they are European Linden. They absolutely roar with honeybee activity when they are in bloom.